May 2018 U.S. Airline Traffic Data

U.S. airlines carried a new high of 73.9 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers, seasonally adjusted, in May 2018, up 0.1 percent from April for the fourth consecutive monthly increase.

One Month: April to May 2018 domestic enplanements were virtually unchanged while enplanements on U.S. airlines’ international flights to and from the U.S. rose 0.4 percent for a 0.1 percent systemwide increase.

One Year: May 2017 to May 2018 domestic enplanements rose 4.9 percent while enplanements on U.S. airlines’ international flights to and from the U.S. rose 1.9 percent for a 4.5 percent systemwide increase.

Three Years: May 2015 to May 2018 domestic enplanements rose 12.7 percent while enplanements on U.S. airlines’ international flights to and from the U.S. rose 10.0 percent for a 12.4 percent systemwide increase.

Unadjusted: Systemwide, domestic and international enplanements all reached record highs for the month of May.

Passenger enplanements: Systemwide, international, and domestic passenger enplanements all reached new highs for the month of May.

One month: April to May 2018: domestic enplanements rose 5.2 percent and enplanements on U.S. airlines’ international flights to and from the U.S. rose 4.2 percent for a 5.1 percent systemwide increase.

One year: May 2017 to May 2018, domestic enplanements rose 5.4 percent while international enplanements rose 2.3 percent for a 5.0 percent systemwide increase.

Three years: May 2015 to May 2018, domestic enplanements rose 12.7 percent while international enplanements rose 8.9 percent for and 12.3 percent systemwide increase.

Revenue passenger-miles: Systemwide, international and domestic revenue passenger miles (RPMs) all reached new highs for the month of May.

Available seat-miles: Systemwide, international, and domestic available seat-miles (ASMs) all reached new highs for the month of May.

Load Factor:

Systemwide load factor (84.1) was down 0.9 points from the all-time May high (85.0) reached in 2014 based on unrounded numbers. Domestic load factor (85.2) was down 1.0 points from the all-time May high (86.3) reached in 2014. International load factor (81.4) was down 1.4 points from the all-time May high (82.8) reached in 2013.

When the primary purpose is to examine monthly shifts in transportation services output and analyze short-term trends, the variation introduced by normal seasonal changes must be removed from the data. Transportation is highly seasonal, and without adjustment, the data do not give an accurate picture of underlying changes in aviation, passenger travel.

Seasonal adjustment of the data removes the seasonal events that follow a regular seasonal pattern. Changes that are not due to seasonality, such as a change in air travel resulting from economic conditions become more readily apparent.

The aviation data are seasonally adjusted for the effects of trading day, moving holidays, and data outliers.

Data are compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial U.S. air carriers detailing operations, passenger traffic and freight traffic. This release includes data received by BTS from 78 U.S. carriers as of Aug.7 for U.S. carrier scheduled civilian operations.